Since its founding on the Day of Pentecost in 33AD the Christian Church has experienced severe persecution, always designed to eradicate Christianity from the globe, every year since its founding. That’s almost 2,000 years of unrelenting genocide. From Saul of Tarsus capturing Christians and having them imprisoned and killed to Nero using Christians as human torches to light up the Coliseum and his feast orgies (not to mention Nero feeding Christians to wild animals for his fun and amusement), and Domitian who not only strove to kill all the Christians, but he actively sent out Roman soldiers to confiscate every single copy of the Bible throughout the Roman Empire and destroy it. From the Roman Catholic church capturing as many Christians as they could and killing them by the sword & ax, by hanging and other forms of strangulation, by burning them alive at the stake (and many other forms of killing too gruesome to mention. You can Google it if you are entertained by that sort of thing); to localized Christian genocides such as the Armenian Genocide with between 1.2 and 1.5 million Christians were put to death; and from the Muslims persecuting and killing tens of thousands each and every year throughout world to the persecution Christians receive daily here in America. It seems that true biblical Christians face more backlash, more hatred, greater misrepresentation, false accusations and lies told about it than any group in America today. The goal, as stated by many who hate God, hate Jesus, hate the Bible, and hate true biblical Christians is to eradicate the Biblically true Christian Church in America, just as others are currently trying to around the world.
I don’t know how many times I have heard people – and the government – lambaste Christians, mock them, belittle them, misrepresent them, lie about, and so forth, and this includes vast numbers of progressive pseudo-Christians (who for some reason think they can rewrite the Bible and redefine God and then be the true church. They are bald-faced liars and false teachers).
And sadly, it seems that no one in this country, including the politicians, really cares. When someone makes insensitive comments about Jews, Muslims, or the LGBTQ+ community, people are up in arms (well, maybe not so much with Jews as antisemitism is on the rise in America). When people mock, belittle, or blaspheme Christians and Christianity –– crickets. But, this is to be expected. Jesus Himself said, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they followed My word, they will follow yours also. But all these things they will do to you on account of My name, because they do not know the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. The one who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. But this has happened so that the word that is written in their Law will be fulfilled: ‘They hated Me for no reason.’” (John 15:18-25 NASB95) [see also 1 John 3:13; 2 Peter 4:12-19].
If you are still with me after all of that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Sometimes I will come across a news item that just pushes me into a Popeye moment, when “I’ve taken all I can stands and I can’t stands n’more!”
With that said, thank you again and may our Great and Awesome God bless you abundantly, may our Wonderful Lord Jesus Christ shine the light of His countenance upon you, and may our Perfect Comforter and Teacher, God the Holy Spirit be with you always.
[The first two installments of this series can be found here and here]